We are now entering the third decade of the 21st Century, and, especially in the last years, the achievements made by scientists have been exceptional, leading to major advancements in the fast-growing field of cognition. Frontiers has organized a series of Research Topics to highlight the latest advancements in research across the field of cognition, with articles from the Associate Members of our accomplished Editorial Boards. This editorial initiative of particular relevance, led by Prof. Petra Jansen, Specialty Chief Editor of the "Cognition and Movement" section, is focused on new insights, novel developments, current challenges, latest discoveries, recent advances, and future perspectives in the field of cognition and movement.

University of Regensburg

Frontiers in Cognition

Cognition and Movement

Frontiers in Physiology

Computational Physiology and Medicine

Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology

Insights in Cognition and Movement: 2022

This study investigated the relationship between mental rotation ability and postural stability, with a focus on the role of the visuospatial sketchpad of working memory, as it has been found to be correlated with both concepts. A total of 87 healthy young adults completed a postural stability task on a force plate, a mental rotation task, and both spatial and object working memory tasks in a counterbalanced order. Bayesian correlations revealed weak positive correlations between mental rotation and postural stability, as well as a correlation between mental rotation and spatial working memory. A weak association was also observed between mental rotation and object working memory. No correlation was found between the working memory components and postural stability. Furthermore, the results showed that spatial working memory did not play a crucial role in predicting postural stability. We conclude that the visuospatial sketchpad, particularly the spatial working memory component, cannot explain the relationship between mental rotation and postural stability.

This study investigated the relationship between mental rotation ability and postural stability, with a focus on the role of the visuospatial sketchpad of working memory, as it has been found to be correlated with both concepts. A total of 87 healthy young adults completed a postural stability task on a force plate, a mental rotation task, and both spatial and object working memory tasks in a counterbalanced order. Bayesian correlations revealed weak positive correlations between mental rotation and postural stability, as well as a correlation between mental rotation and spatial working memory. A weak association was also observed between mental rotation and object working memory. No correlation was found between the working memory components and postural stability. Furthermore, the results showed that spatial working memory did not play a crucial role in predicting postural stability. We conclude that the visuospatial sketchpad, particularly the spatial working memory component, cannot explain the relationship between mental rotation and postural stability.

No role of working memory in the relation between mental rotation and postural stability

IntroductionWe examined skilled-based differences in the impact of exposure to an opponent with action tendencies that were either independent of, dependent on, or both independent of and dependent on evolving environmental information during anticipation.</sec>MethodsA video-based two-vs.-two soccer task was employed, where 14 expert and 14 novice soccer players had to predict an attacking opponent's imminent actions, before and after exposure to the preceding actions of the opponent.</sec>ResultsAnticipation accuracy, number of responses congruent with the opponent's action tendencies, response confidence, and visual dwell time on the opponent in possession increased following opponent exposure, both in experts and novices. When compared to novices, experts demonstrated higher anticipation accuracy, more congruent responses, and greater response confidence. Novices performed at their best when the opponent exhibited action tendencies that were independent of the environment, whereas experts demonstrated their highest performance when the opponent had action tendencies that were both independent of and dependent on unfolding environmental information.</sec>DiscussionOur findings provide novel insights into the role of context-environment dependency and support the notion that experts are superior to novices in detecting and utilizing opponents' action tendencies and integrating this information with unfolding environmental information during anticipation.</sec>

Introduction: We examined skilled-based differences in the impact of exposure to an opponent with action tendencies that were either independent of, dependent on, or both independent of and dependent on evolving environmental information during anticipation.Methods: A video-based two-vs.-two soccer task was employed, where 14 expert and 14 novice soccer players had to predict an attacking opponent's imminent actions, before and after exposure to the preceding actions of the opponent.Results: Anticipation accuracy, number of responses congruent with the opponent's action tendencies, response confidence, and visual dwell time on the opponent in possession increased following opponent exposure, both in experts and novices. When compared to novices, experts demonstrated higher anticipation accuracy, more congruent responses, and greater response confidence. Novices performed at their best when the opponent exhibited action tendencies that were independent of the environment, whereas experts demonstrated their highest performance when the opponent had action tendencies that were both independent of and dependent on unfolding environmental information.Discussion: Our findings provide novel insights into the role of context-environment dependency and support the notion that experts are superior to novices in detecting and utilizing opponents' action tendencies and integrating this information with unfolding environmental information during anticipation.

Skill-based differences in the impact of opponent exposure during anticipation: the role of context-environment dependency

Multiple proprioceptive signals, like those from muscle spindles, are thought to enable robust estimates of body configuration. Yet, it remains unknown whether spindle signals suffice to discriminate limb movements. Here, a simulated 4-musculotendon, 2-joint planar limb model produced repeated cycles of five end-point trajectories in forward and reverse directions, which generated spindle Ia and II afferent signals (proprioceptors for velocity and length, respectively) from each musculotendon. We find that cross-correlation of the 8D time series of raw firing rates (four Ia, four II) cannot discriminate among most movement pairs (∼ 29% accuracy). However, projecting these signals onto their 1st and 2nd principal components greatly improves discriminability of movement pairs (82% accuracy). We conclude that high-dimensional ensembles of muscle proprioceptors can discriminate among limb movements—but only after dimensionality reduction. This may explain the pre-processing of some afferent signals before arriving at the somatosensory cortex, such as processing of cutaneous signals at the cat’s cuneate nucleus.

Multiple proprioceptive signals, like those from muscle spindles, are thought to enable robust estimates of body configuration. Yet, it remains unknown whether spindle signals suffice to discriminate limb movements. Here, a simulated 4-musculotendon, 2-joint planar limb model produced repeated cycles of five end-point trajectories in forward and reverse directions, which generated spindle Ia and II afferent signals (proprioceptors for velocity and length, respectively) from each musculotendon. We find that cross-correlation of the 8D time series of raw firing rates (four Ia, four II) cannot discriminate among most movement pairs (∼ 29% accuracy). However, projecting these signals onto their 1st and 2nd principal components greatly improves discriminability of movement pairs (82% accuracy). We conclude that high-dimensional ensembles of muscle proprioceptors can discriminate among limb movements—but only after dimensionality reduction. This may explain the pre-processing of some afferent signals before arriving at the somatosensory cortex, such as processing of cutaneous signals at the cat’s cuneate nucleus.

Edge Computing in Nature: Minimal pre-processing of multi-muscle ensembles of spindle signals improves discriminability of limb movements

Over a century's worth of research suggests that, for a variety of verbal and perceptual memory phenomena, retrieval modifies memory in two ways. First, retrieved information is strengthened and thus more easily retrieved on subsequent recall tests. Secondly, when information is stored or organized in memory in such a way that multiple representations share a common retrieval cue, and are thus subject to interference, related information that is not retrieved becomes less recallable. Such retrieval-induced forgetting is a highly robust and well-understood phenomenon. Over the past decade, several experiments have demonstrated that retrieval-induced forgetting also persists for motor responses–both simple and complex, and that this impairment is observed for representations stored in both declarative and procedural memory. While several review papers have focused on retrieval-induced forgetting of verbal and perceptual information, to date no literature review has focused exclusively on retrieval-induced forgetting of motor responses or actions. In addition, while retrieval-induced forgetting has been documented extensively within the domain of declarative memory, only a few papers have been published documenting retrieval-induced forgetting in procedural memory. Therefore, this review paper will explore these findings and their primary implications, most notably that when multiple motor programs are initiated via a shared retrieval cue, inhibitory suppression is recruited to decrease accessibility of related, but inappropriate actions in service of potentiating retrieval of appropriate actions. More broadly, the same processes that govern selective retrieval in cognition are implicated in the selective retrieval of motor actions.

Over a century's worth of research suggests that, for a variety of verbal and perceptual memory phenomena, retrieval modifies memory in two ways. First, retrieved information is strengthened and thus more easily retrieved on subsequent recall tests. Secondly, when information is stored or organized in memory in such a way that multiple representations share a common retrieval cue, and are thus subject to interference, related information that is not retrieved becomes less recallable. Such retrieval-induced forgetting is a highly robust and well-understood phenomenon. Over the past decade, several experiments have demonstrated that retrieval-induced forgetting also persists for motor responses–both simple and complex, and that this impairment is observed for representations stored in both declarative and procedural memory. While several review papers have focused on retrieval-induced forgetting of verbal and perceptual information, to date no literature review has focused exclusively on retrieval-induced forgetting of motor responses or actions. In addition, while retrieval-induced forgetting has been documented extensively within the domain of declarative memory, only a few papers have been published documenting retrieval-induced forgetting in procedural memory. Therefore, this review paper will explore these findings and their primary implications, most notably that when multiple motor programs are initiated via a shared retrieval cue, inhibitory suppression is recruited to decrease accessibility of related, but inappropriate actions in service of potentiating retrieval of appropriate actions. More broadly, the same processes that govern selective retrieval in cognition are implicated in the selective retrieval of motor actions.